Philip Zimmermann
Tucson, AZ
Sanctus Sonorensis
Undocumented immigrants. This work comments on the complicated attitudes of Americans on illegal immigration from Mexico. The cover shows a photograph of the area of Southern Arizona which is the most active in terms of migration across the Sonoran desert, and where thousands have lost their lives in the deadly desert heat. The interior pages show the progression of a typical high-desert day from dawn to sunset, mimicking the sky above an immigrant during a day’s desert passage, and accompanied by a single line of text on each two-page spread.
In December of 2004, I was driving back into the United States from Mexico through the Lukeville border crossing. As I was traveling through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument just inside Arizona, I was stopped for a couple of hours by several groups of uniformed men each consisting of a large number of heavily armed Border Patrol agents on some sort of special operations. The agents eventually lead out of the desert scrub a large number of illegal immigrants that had been hiding in the mesquite and cactus as they attempted to head north through the park. They clearly weren’t drug smugglers. They looked too poor and were unarmed. They made for a rather moving and pathetic sight, and looked disheveled and dejected. I had never seen an operation like this up close and it was rather upsetting, and got me thinking about the life these folks were trying to make for themselves and the efforts that we in the United States make to prevent them from coming here. Sanctus Sonorensis was a work that eventually came out of this experience. |
|
Four-color offset lithography printed book was created as a series of two-page board-book spreads that minimize the visual distraction of a ‘gutter’ on the panoramic view of each skyscape. The edges of the book are rounded and gilded in the fashion of religious breviaries or missals. There is a gold-foiled title on the cover and spine. The book was printed and bound in China. 90 pages. 11 x 8 x 1.5 inches. 2009. Edition of 1000.
$50
To purchase, please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.
Artist Biography
I am currently a professor in the School of Art, University of Arizona in Tucson. This is my third year here. Previously I taught for 24 years at Purchase College, State University of New York. I have been making artists’ books for over 35 years, and got my BFA from Cornell University and my MFA in Photographic Studies from Visual Studies Workshop program at SUNY Buffalo. I have received a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship as well as two NYFA Fellowships and many other awards. I am in most artists book collections around the world. |
 |